Ready to grow your business but not quite ready to hire another full-time employee? There are a lot of college students looking to gain valuable experience as interns in your community. We are bringing you an in depth guide on how to hire interns in Lakeland, Florida.
Hiring interns can bring a fresh perspective to the company, and help to increase the productivity in your business through providing an extra set of qualified hands, and even becoming a potential entry level hire. A well-structured business with the capacity to oversee and teach interns can greatly benefit from creating an internship program.
Many companies pay interns an hourly wage or a stipend, however some businesses choose to only offer unpaid internship opportunities. There are a number of benefits to creating a paid internship program rather than unpaid, like attracting the best candidates and avoiding legal issues pertaining to labor laws. In fact, unpaid internships can be more detrimental to the morale and financials of your company.
Creating a Job Description
When hiring an intern, the first step is to discern what you need help with in your business. This will help you to develop a detailed and accurate internship job description. A few things you’ll want to include are…
- Hiring date
- Preferred college year
- Preferred major
- If it is a remote or in person position
- Required skills, credentials and experience
- Responsibilities the intern will have
- Information about your company culture
Attracting Qualified Candidates
Get the attention of students who will be qualified for the job and passionate about what your company does through contacting local Lakeland colleges and posting your job opening on employment websites. Doing these things can help your company’s job posting get traffic in your geographic region from candidates who are searching specifically for what you offer.
Lakeland Colleges to reach out to when seeking an intern:
- Southeastern University
Compass Careers Center | Email compass@seu.edu - Polk State College
Career Development | Email sbenton@polk.edu - Florida Southern College
Career Services | Email apitts@flsouthern.edu. - Florida Polytechnic University
Career Development | Email pjones@floridapoly.edu - Keiser University, Lakeland
Online Career Center | List your Job Here
Employment Websites
Don’t underestimate the power of posting a job opening on your social media channels. Even just creating a few social posts that include the email of the hiring manager can drum up a lot of interest from potential interns who are already interested in your company.
The Interview Process
After applications close, the next step is to narrow down a manageable amount of top applicants to interview, and eventually potentially hire.
Interviews can take anywhere from thirty minutes to an hour and a half depending on how in depth you want to go with each candidate. It is best to have a list of standard questions so you can remain consistent in each interview.
Common interview questions to ask are:
- How did you hear about this position?
- Why do you want this job?
- Why are you leaving your current job?
- Why do you think you are a good fit for our company?
- What are your greatest strengths and weaknesses?
- What motivates you?
- Tell me about a time you faced a challenge in the workplace and how you overcame it.
- Do you have any questions for us?
- What is your availability? What hours are you able to work?
If you are interviewing a large number of people, a good practice is utilizing a rubric to score each candidate in certain categories to remain objective and consistent in each interview.
Hiring Decisions
After the interview process is complete, the hiring decisions begin. A new hire will have an impact on the productivity, culture, and finances of a company, so it is important to make strategic decisions as a team.
After the hiring decisions have been made, be sure to decide on official start and end dates, pay rate. Starting an internship program at your company can be a win-win scenario for everyone involved and help your company to gain momentum for a new strategic year.
After selecting your new hire, be sure to email the applicants who were not chosen thanking them for their time, informing them of your decision and even possibly encouraging them to apply in the future.
Do you have any further questions about how to hire interns in Lakeland, Florida, that didn’t get covered in this post? Let us know in the comments below, so we can help you get the answers you need.
This blog was written by the team at Catapult Lakeland, an entrepreneur center in Lakeland Florida that exists to foster the growth of startups by providing education, resources, community and space.
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